Mountfield R 28M Ride-on-Mower Belt Replacement, confused with part number. Please help

sujsuj

Bendy_House said:

Keep us updated. This thread is fun

SS, what repairs do you need to carry out?

And are you going to start doing 'raised' cuts when the grass is tall, with second, lower, cuts? Ie, are you going to be taking it easier on your mower?

And I presume you now know which low height will actually make blade contact with the ground in certain places?

During 2021 summer I bought this Ride-on mower in May-June period, by that time grass gone to a level nearly 0.5-0.7 m height. So when finally I received it ride-on couldn't cut those grass with mower as it was over grown. So I had to use hedge trimmer to cut it to half then use mower!

This year I think I managed Ok, but then I used my mower to so low hitting ground that also might have damaged belt etc. Another mis-use was for my tennis court I used mower connected to heavy Garden roller. So you can imagine level of over use. 

sujsuj

Section62 said:

sujsuj said:

Mower is 1.5 years old, used only domestically that too to cut around 1acre land. But I had to admit I had very rough use of this . So not surprised with belt condition.

Number not in the belt because its wear & tear only.

Rough use alone wouldn't normally do that kind of damage in that length of time.  Simple rough use would typically accelerate wear, rather than cause rapid total failure.

Without seeing and feeling the belt in real life it is difficult to be certain, but my guess would be the blades have jammed at some point which prevented the belt freely rotating, causing the part of the belt on the driving pulley to overheat.  Alternatively the clutch mechanism might not be backing off sufficiently to take the belt fully out of the drive position.  Either (any) way, overheating normally causes the 'rubber' to lose pliability which leads to cracking and ultimately pieces of the belt to break off in the area where it has been overheated.

Rough use might have caused damage to the mower which needs to be repaired before a new belt is fitted, otherwise the new belt will go the same way the old one did.

V-belt details are normally printed on the outside face of the belt, which shouldn't be subject to excessive wear (even in rough use) because the outside face is never used for driving anything - at most an idler pulley would be in contact with the outer face, e.g. a belt tensioner (in this case probably used as the clutch mechanism).

If the outside face of the belt has worn to the point the part number can't be seen then this is also indicative of a problem which needs fixing before replacing the belt.

Managed to get one for £13,  Dunlop brand!. same size as he damaged one. Weather permitting I will fit this some point this week . I am planning to follow  this video !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L02DsnTVGKI

Need to find a may to raise ride-on so that can repair easily. Any ideas..??

sujsuj

Section62 said:

sujsuj said:

Mower is 1.5 years old, used only domestically that too to cut around 1acre land. But I had to admit I had very rough use of this . So not surprised with belt condition.

Number not in the belt because its wear & tear only.

Rough use alone wouldn't normally do that kind of damage in that length of time.  Simple rough use would typically accelerate wear, rather than cause rapid total failure.

Without seeing and feeling the belt in real life it is difficult to be certain, but my guess would be the blades have jammed at some point which prevented the belt freely rotating, causing the part of the belt on the driving pulley to overheat.  Alternatively the clutch mechanism might not be backing off sufficiently to take the belt fully out of the drive position.  Either (any) way, overheating normally causes the 'rubber' to lose pliability which leads to cracking and ultimately pieces of the belt to break off in the area where it has been overheated.

Rough use might have caused damage to the mower which needs to be repaired before a new belt is fitted, otherwise the new belt will go the same way the old one did.

V-belt details are normally printed on the outside face of the belt, which shouldn't be subject to excessive wear (even in rough use) because the outside face is never used for driving anything - at most an idler pulley would be in contact with the outer face, e.g. a belt tensioner (in this case probably used as the clutch mechanism).

If the outside face of the belt has worn to the point the part number can't be seen then this is also indicative of a problem which needs fixing before replacing the belt.

Yes, blade got stuck at-least 5/6 tome every day I cut the over grown gras..

sujsuj

Apodemus said:

I'm still with the rough-use causing belt-damage side of this debate!  Cutting long grass with clumps of couch in it is incredibly hard on a mower.  The mower copes well with long grass in general and then "bang!" you hit a clump of couch and the blade is brought to nearly a halt, before speeding up again.  In a belt-driven mower, it is the belt that absorbs the hit.  Do that often enough and belt damage is almost certain.

The answer, of course, is to take several passes, but for most people "life is too short" for that.  Also a second pass on the same day never really works well and in our damp climate the grass can be long again before the next decent chance to mow.  So most folks will err on the side of risking being a bit rough on the mower.   A better solution is probably to use a strimmer on the tough patches but, again, when the mower is out and the strimmer still in the garage, who is going to go back to get the strimmer?

sujsuj, I'm not sure about that model of mower, but on many ride-on mowers, the deck is only held on by a couple of bolts and/or some cotter pins and should be relatively easy to remove, without lifting the mower. 

Mine is - Mountfield 28M Petrol Ride-on lawnmower 352cc
I saw this video for another model but same shape. So hopefully will be following this video will do!.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L02DsnTVGKI

sujsuj

Ganga said:

To drop the cutting deck normally you make sure the machine is switched off ,take the pins out of the brackets holding the deck and the wire connected to it and pull it out the side ,to work underneath i have always just lifted it up a couple of feet and put wooden blocks under the wheels or you could use axle stands under the chassis BUT do not use house bricks as these can shatter.fitting the belt is an easy job for people with moderate skills but if the machine was made in the USA dont forget they do not use metric spanners only A/F sizes .

Thanks.
Yes lifting it on a safer wood piece and repair is my plan.
I consider myself above average repairing skills. recently successfully repaired & refitted my car's bumper!

Merc Dealer quoted 4 digit sum for getting new bumper and fitting it. I managed get a small part and repaired all under £30 (though dealer might put shiny new bumper for that money.)

Bendy_House

Is bumper plastic finish or painted? Just refinished a badly-faded bumper/grill/arches on a Ford Transit using Zinsser AllCoat Ext in satin anthracite. Applied in thinnest coats using a foam roller. Looks like new parts.

sujsuj

Bendy_House said:

Is bumper plastic finish or painted? Just refinished a badly-faded bumper/grill/arches on a Ford Transit using Zinsser AllCoat Ext in satin anthracite. Applied in thinnest coats using a foam roller. Looks like new parts.

It's painted, but my job was more simpler. My Merc bumper caught in a car parking barrier and bumper was hanging from body.  Luckily Merc connects Bumper with other parts  using bumper retainer strips, so if anything goes wrong, part that need replacing is only retainer strip which costs £10.!